Beame Says No to Sadat

Mayor Abraham D. Beame informed the State Department yesterday that he would not participate in ceremonial greetings for Egyptian President Anwar Sadat due in New York tomorrow. He said it would be “an act of hypocrisy” for him to do so. (In Washington, Presidential press secretary Ron Nessen said today that President Ford deeply regretted Beame’s decision not to see Sadat. See separate story P. S.)

The city’s first Jewish Mayor was reportedly under heavy pressure from the State Department to welcome the visiting Egyptian leader and present him with the ceremonial key to the city. But Beame informed the Department through Commissioner of Public Events Angier Biddle Duke that “my personal plans over the next two days do not include an official visit with President Sadat of Egypt.”

In a statement released at City Hall late yesterday, Beame said: “I believe it would be an act of hypocrisy on my part to participate in any welcoming ceremony with any chief of state who has been a party to the United Nations resolution which seeks to revive a new form of racism as a substitute for the principles of understanding and peaceful negotiations upon which this world body was formed.”

The Mayor was referring to the draft resolution adopted by the General Assembly’s Third Committee equating Zionism with racism and colonialism. Egypt, though not one of the original sponsors of the draft, supported it.